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Nice, France: La Reservé de Nice ﻿

When in Nice, eat well and with a view. You are in the South of France, darling.

When you walk around the town of Nice, there are a lot of street side eateries, all look just okay and you don’t know whether the food is going to be good and fresh or not. If you know me at all, you already know that I like to eat well, and planning my dinners before arriving proved to be a very good idea.

La Reserve lies on the water just on the edge of town. Just further along from the port where all the beautiful yachts are, and if you are going to La Reserve, most likely you will be donning your heels so I would highly recommend Ubering it there. It is not walking distance let me put it that way.

I also did not realise what a historic place this was. When I went to the gardens of the Rothschilds, there on the wall on the villa was a very old photograph of La Reserve and Le Plongeoir, which is another restaurant slash bar which sits precariously on a single rock. So this place must have been going on for decades and decades. Pretty cool.

The setting is perfect at La Reserve. Right on the crystal clear waters of the Med, views spanning all of the coastline, beautiful sunset in the horizon… on warm summer nights, you can sit at the tables on the balcony which would be super prime spots. One thing to note that it is not a big dining room. It feels small and intimate. Candles flickering in the breeze, modern clean decor, and probably more staff than diners. That’s probably one of the charms. I spotted a young well-heeled couple hugging a table in the corner, a local family who seemed to treat it as their weekend dining room, and a couple who I couldn’t quite figure out, a silver fox and a stunning younger lady who dressed and looked like she could be out of Downtown Abbey. Were they father and daughter, were they business accomplices, were they a couple, no surely can’t.

The food was as I had expected. We went for the 3 course set menu plus an amuse buche, presented beautifully, very tasty mouthfuls albeit it being a tad over seasoned. The Whispering Angel rosé to go with the food, the only pink choice on the wine list, reminded me of The Ivy Chelsea Garden.

Clear blue waters

Balls with bechamel sauce that bursts in your mouth

They do these olive rolls with olive tapenade in the middle.. mmm

A lingering couple hours were well spent in a beautiful ambience.

Would I recommend it? Yes. Would I go back? Absolutely. Is there anything I would change about the place? Only to bag that outdoor seat when I return in the height of the summer to enjoy the warm breeze in my hair as I sip some rosé with my love and watch the sky turn a beautiful amber in the French Rivieran sunset. Life is wonderful.